Meteorologists of my region claim that we have some of the longest-lasting nivometric series worldwide. And they have recorded a decrease of snow amounts in a lot of weather stations (in particular in places at low altitudes, such as Turin and other localities in the Po Valley)
Here there is Turin in the period 1787-88 / 2008-09 (I can't find a more updated version, anyway we still had a quite snowy winter in 2011-12). Altitude 250 m.
average over the whole period: 46.9 cm
average in the period 1961-2010: 24.4 cm
The decrease has been less evident in other localities, such as Cuneo, 550 m of altitude (a really snowy town, in comparison with the rest of the region and with other places at the same altitude)
Period considered: 1877-78 / 2011-12
average over the whole period: 121.5 cm
average 1961-2010: 115.2 cm
actually, in the time spawn 1961-90 it was a little more snowy than the average over the whole period: 123.2 cm. Also, the second most snowy winter ever was winter 2009-10, so I would not say that over there snow has diminished.
Source:
Serie e medie nivometriche del nord-ovest - Dati Meteo Asti
Another parameter we take into consideration a lot is glacier extension. Because of several
possible factors (changes into snow amounts accumulated during the winter, higher temperatures during the summer, pollution that covers the snow making it darker and that change the ratio between reflected and absorbed light....) their extension here on the Alps is visibly lower than one century ago, and this is widely seen as a worrisome phenomenon.
This is the glacier of the Rocciamelone for example (one of the closest one to my home)
First picture from 1894
Second picture 2012:
(source:
Nimbus Web Glaciologia )
In the last half century a really large lake was forming from the melted ice, and the French authorities also had to operate a controlled removal of all that water for avoiding disasters in our neighbor valleys on the French side.
On the other hand, in this moment I would be curious to see some nivometric series from southern Italy. In the last few years I heard news about heavy snowfalls over there quite often (in the last few weeks in particular), and I know that the Apennines area in particular can be really snowy, but I would be interesting to see some number for seeing if there is some visible trend over over a period of some decades (at least).
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